Please open your Bibles to the
Gospel according to Luke 23:32 (2X). The sermon today is about the two
thieves who were crucified on either side of Jesus. You are ail familiar
with this story and you know that Jesus said to one of the two thieves, "Today
Shalt Thou Be With Me in Paradise" (2X). That is the
title of the sermon today. This is what I wanted to preach on this Lord's
Supper Sunday. Let us look again at this historical event and see if we can
glean a few more nuggets of insight from this story. Come, let us follow the
Lord Jesus Christ to the cross, and let Him show us what happened on
that day. Look at the events, and look at the people. The first two
people I want you to look at are:

Lu 23:32And there were also two other, malefactors, led
with him to be put to death.

Lu 23:33 And when they
were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him,and
the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.

This is what man did. They nailed Jesus, the King
of Glory, to a cruel cross, as if He was a wicked criminal, in between two
other wicked criminals that are called "malefactors". What are
malefactors? A malefactor is someone who commits an offense against the
Law, especially a felony. These two thieves were not petty thieves. They were
violent robbers; like the thieves in the story of the "Good Samaritan",
who robbed the man going from Jerusalem to Jericho wounding him, and leaving
him on the side of the road to die. Can you see what mankind is capable of
doing? Apart from the grace of God we would be like those violent
robbers, and we would be like those who condemned the King of Glory to a cruel
cross, out of envy. Yes! That was the motive of the leaders of the Jews:
Envy! This is how the whole human race comes into the world, as lawbreakers
and as enemies of God. They even nailed Him between two robbers to
humiliate Him. But God has foreordained all of this. God said in:

Isa 53:12 He was numbered
with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and madeintercession
for the transgressors.

This is what Christ did. He made intercession
for those who humiliated Him and caused Him to be crucified. He was numbered
with the transgressors and He made intercession for the transgressors.
What a grace! What an immense goodness from the Savior who was so ill-treated!
But can you see, God orchestrated all these events so that salvation could
come. God's Counsel shall stand.

We read in:

Ac 4:27 For of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, andPontius
Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,

Ac 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel
determined before to be done.

Whatsoever
man did was simply that which God's hand and His counsel determined to be
done.God arranged all these events in such a way that
in these three crosses, and in those who hung uponthem,
we might see the drama of salvation and man's response to it. For
example, one tiny detailrecorded in all four of
the Synoptic Gospels is this: One of the thieves was crucified on His right
handand the other on the left. What was God's purpose
in writing this? Could it be that God directed us tothe
Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matt 25:31? Absolutely yes!
But the sheep and the goats belonged to the same flock. In the OT both sheep
and goats were clean animals; both sheep and goats were used for sacrifices.
So, could these two thieves be wicked Gentiles? Absolutely not! Pilate
would have extradited those Gentiles to the governor of the region they came
from. For example, Pilate did that with Jesus, whom he sent to Herod. No, these
two thieves were most likely Jews from Judaea. It means that these thieves
belonged to the same church where all the other Jews went. It means that
these two thieves have come under the hearing of the Gospel at one time. They
have heard about the Messiah, the Christ who was to come. Their speech
indicates it. In Matt 25:31 the Lord Jesus told a parable about the Judgment
on the Last Day, where He placed the sheep on His right hand and the goats
on His left. The sheep and the goats represent people who belonged to the same
church, but they were separated into saved and unsaved people. Now, transfer
that image to another Judgment Day, here at the cross. Who do the
two thieves represent? They represent all those we find in the externally
visible church. One of these thieves represents those in the church who
truly have become saved, whereas the other represents those who have
come under the hearing of the Gospel, but have never become saved. The two
thieves read the accusation above Jesus:

#1 This Is the King of the Jews (Luke 23:34-38. Rom
2:28-29, 2Thess 2:13, Rom 5:6)

Lu 23:34-35 Then said
Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they partedhis
raiment, and cast lots. And the peopie stood beholding. And the rulers also
with themderided him, saying, He saved others; let
him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.

Lu 23:36 And the soldiers
also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar,

Lu 23:37 And saying, if
thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.

Lu 23:38 And a
superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and
Hebrew,THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Who is Jesus King over? The Jews? No, not
the ethnic Jews, but those whom God calls Jews.

And who are those? They are those who have become "Born
Again". God says in:

Rom 2:28-29:For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly;
neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is
a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart,
inthe spirit, and not in the letter; whose
praise is not of men, but of God.

The Lord Jesus had to purchase every
subject that was going to be drawn into His KingdomInitially
no one was good enough to be called a Jew in heart. First Christ had to pay the
penalty forthe sins of each one whom He predestined to draft
into God's holy heaven. Then God the Holy Spirithas to give a new
heart and give faith to every one for whom Christ suffered and died.
Scripture doesnot teach that if God has elected
a person to be saved that that person will be saved whether theybelieve
or not. That is a false teaching invented by those who reject the truth.
But Scripture teachesthat the same God who
predestined the end, also predestined the means to that end. The
God whodecreed the salvation of the dying thief
fulfilled His decree by giving him a faith with which to believe. This is the
plain teaching of 2Thess 2:13, where God says, "God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and
belief of the truth". God did not ask our permission to do that.
Salvation is something God does to us without our approval. If God did
ask our permission we would have said, "NO!" because we were totally
enslaved to sin and Satan. God says in Rom 5:6.

Ro 5:6 For when we were
yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

One of the two thieves was one of the ungodly for
whom Christ died and who had no strength to come to Christ on his own. Then he
heard his fellow thief on the other side say,

•If Thou Be Christ Save Thyself and Us(Luke 23:39-41)

It was as if the Devil had indwelt the other
thief and was tempting Christ. We read in verse 39,

Lu 23:39 And one of the
malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ,save
thyself and us.

It would have been a disaster if the Lord Jesus Christ
had come off the cross at that time. All His prior suffering would have become
worthless. Ail the guilt of our sins would not have been paid and the result
would have been that all mankind would be condemned to Hell, not one excepted,
because the righteousness of God would have required it. It would mean
that Satan's crime in the temptation of Adam and Eve would have been 100%
successful. The Devil would have won and God would have lost. That is
impossible! Therefore Christ remained on the cross. He saved one of the two
thieves:

Lu 23:40-41 But the other
answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art inthe same condemnation?
And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds:but
this man hath done nothing amiss.

What came over this man? What did he
see or hear? Why did he have a change of heart? He tooreviled
Christ in the beginning, and that is a picture of all of us starting out as
enemies of God.Whatever this thief has
heard before, can we conclude that he heard the Gospel while hanging on thecross
for the first three hours? What did God the Holy Spirit make him hear
during those three hours?He heard the rulers of his Church
scoffing at Jesus. His church was the O.T. congregation, which heforsook
a long time ago because he recognized those Pharisees as
"hypocrites". He heard thesoldiers mocking Jesus.
These were the Roman soldiers who nailed him to the cross, and who hadno
good words for him either. The Romans and the Pharisees were ganging up on
Jesus. He heardthe passers by reviling
Jesus, and saying things such as "He saved others", and he heard them
saythat He might be the "Christ", the
"Messiah". Was that true or false? He heard Jesus not reviling
backto His scoffers, but instead Jesus said:
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". Whata
gracious response from Jesus. He read the sheet of papyrus above Jesus
head, which stated Hiscrime. And what was His
crime? THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.This man was not a criminal!Then he heard his
fellow thief railing on Jesus. Actually, the Greek word that is used here
means, "to blaspheme". This fellow thief in the face of death was
blaspheming God! What an audacity! Basically he learned everything he
needed to know from the scoffers. And he could see and hear with his own ears
that those scoffers were wrong! Dead wrong! Now he heard that his fellow
thief was actually on the side of the Romans and on the side of the Pharisees,
the hypocrites. Now he knew: That was the wrong side! All the evidence
was leaning in the direction that this Jesus was no ordinary man. In fact, he
heard them call Jesus "The Son of God". He himself had reviled
Jesus in the beginning, but now he saw how wrong he was. Could it be that Jesus
would forgive him those awful words he had said? He did not know. Jesus had not
said anything for three hours. Then he looked at Jesus:

•What did the repentant thief see? (Isa
52:14)

He saw a naked man nailed on a Cross. He saw
Him wearing a crown of thorns, pressed into His head. He saw Jesus bleeding
from His back, from His hands, from His feet and from His head. What did
the repentant thief see? It was a pitiful sight. This man who has been
so gracious toward His tormentors, was hanging on a cross in agony and was
dying. It was not a royal sight at all. Do you remember the Prophet Isaiah
wrote in Isa 52:14, "His visage was so marred more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men". It means, "His face, or
His appearance, was so injured more than that of any man". The Lord Jesus
was brutally tortured. Nothing in the appearance of Jesus indicated that
He was any King at all. Nothing at all! It would take a miracle to see
in this situation that this was a Man going into His Kingdom. But God performed
that miracle in the heart of this thief on the cross. The other thief
heard the same things, and he saw the same things, but he did not repent. Can
you see that it takes a miracle from God to save someone! To save
anyone! They both were on the brink of Hell. They were a few
hours away from dying, and then the Judgment. God decided to save this one, and
not the other one. How do we know that he was saved? Listen to his
words:

#2.Lord, Remember Me (Luke 23:42,
John 6:37,44)

Lu 23:42 And he said unto
Jesus. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

First of all, he addressed Jesus as "Lord".
Only God could have given him this wisdom. Herealized his sins. He
realized he had blasphemed God just a few hours ago. He realized that he hadnothing to give. He was poor and naked and crucified and full of
sin. He could not do anything to savehimself. He was just
hanging there; he was at the mercy of God. But perhaps, would there be
anychance, a tiny little chance that Jesus would
forgive him his sins? Could he plead with Jesus toforgive
him? If he would have asked Jesus' disciples, they would have told him that
Jesus wouldforgive any sinner that would plead for
mercy. Any sinner? Yes any sinner! Who is a sinner? TheScribes
and Pharisees, by their own admittance, were no sinners. They accused Jesus
that he atewith publicans and sinners. But when Jesus was
hanging on the cross, the Scribes and Phariseeswere the scoffers and
they were giving an example that was followed by many in their own nation.They
were not sinners! Likewise atheists are no sinners! If they would admit that
they were sinners, then they would immediately know they were in trouble with
God and they would stop being atheists.Who is a Sinner? Well, everyone who
realizes that they have violated the Law of God, and that theirjust
penalty is to go to Hell forever. That is what God says in the Bible.Everyone who realizes that,and
believes what God says in the Bible, knows that he is in trouble with God, and
he will come toChrist pleading for
mercy, just like the publican did in the parable of Luke 18, and just
like the thief onthe cross did in Luke
23. God says in the Bible that the Lord Jesus will not turn away any sinner
whocomes pleading for mercy. God says in John
6:37, "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out". In other words,
every sinner that comes toJesus, He will in no wise
cast out. But who is there who will come to Jesus at his own initiative? Noone! NO NOT ONE! The only ones who will come are those whom the
Father has given to Jesus. Infact, Jesus says: they shallcome to Me. But no one elsewants to come to Him on His
terms. O yes,they want to come on their own terms. They want
to come if it does not cost too much. They want tocome
if He is the god that they have in mind: one who leaves their self-respect
intact. Everyone hastheir own preconceived
notions of the god they want: a god who will serve them. But they do not wanta
God who is Sovereign! The God of the Bible says in Joh 6:37, "All
that the Father qiveth me shallcome to me". That means that
there is a certain number of individuals whom the Father has chosen,and
whom the Father will give to Jesus. It is the Father who will draw them to
Jesus unto conversion.In fact, a little further
in the 6th Chapter of the Gospel according to John, the Lord Jesus
says in John6:44, "No man CAN
come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him". This thief
on thecross was one of those people whom the Father has
given to Jesus and whom the Father wasdrawing to Jesus. And
look how far the Father had to go to break this stubborn human being, until
hefinally surrendered: God had to strip him of
everything he had, God had to strip him naked and nailhim
to a cross, God put him face to face with physical death, so that he began to
think about the lifehereafter, and now
finally God completed the miracle of Salvation in this man who had such a
sordidlife. Why did God wait that long before He
converted him? It was for our benefit, so that we couldhave
this perfect picture of what salvation is. Look at the change that came over
him: First he was areviler. Now he became a
witness for Jesus. He rebuked his fellow thief, saying, "Dost not thou
fearGod seeing thou art in the same condemnation?" We are all going
to die and stand before God asthe Judge. 'And we
indeed justly: for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath
donenothing amiss". This man Jesus has not done any
sin! "And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember mewhen thou comest into Thy kingdom". First he called
Jesus "Lord". Then he acknowledged that Jesusis
a King. And now he pleads: "Lord, remember me",in other words: "I am in deep trouble
with Godbecause of my Sins, but You, Lord, are able to
get me out of this trouble. Can You please forgive mefor what I have done before and remember me favorably when You
have come into Your Kingdom?"Nothing in my hands I
bring; Simply to Thy cross I cling. He received far more than he bargained
for. And Jesus said unto him. Verily I say unto thee Today Shalt Thou
Be With Me in Paradise(2X) V43. He asked for a future
blessing, but Jesus gave him a promise: Today! He asked to be
remembered. That's all he dared to ask. But Jesus said: You will be with
Me! He asked for a humble place when Jesus has been crowned as King.
But Jesus promised: Today You will be with Me in Paradise = in Heaven. How
could Jesus make these far reaching promises? On the same day the body of
this thief was taken from the cross and probably thrown in the garbage dump of
the city of Jerusalem. O, but Jesus already knew what was going to be written
in 2Cor 5:8, To be absent from the body, is to be present with the
Lord. But what did it cost Jesus to forgive this thief all his sins? Jesus
had to become his Substitute. What does that mean? It means that the
Father had loaded on Jesus all the guilt of all the sins that the thief on the
cross had ever committed, plus the guilt of all the sins that we have ever
committed, and that all the elect of God have ever committed, whom the Father
has given to Jesus. And the Father has transferred all the Righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ on the thief on the cross, and on everyone else whom
the Lord Jesus came to save. Then God poured His wrath out on the Lord Jesus,
because He stood guilty with our sins. What is the Wrath of God? It is
the equivalent of an eternity in Hell. That is what the Lord Jesus Christ had
to pay as our Substitute. And He paid the price in full.PAID IN FULL. FINISHED!This all came to pass on Friday April 3,
in the year 33 AD. That is why that day is called "Good Friday".
This is what we are celebrating today in the Lord's Supper. For the Lord Jesus
it was a terrible day, because He had to endure the equivalent of an eternity
in Hell, but for us and for the thief on the cross it was a "Good
Friday", because all our sins were paid in full. But let us be careful
with our conclusions. Was the thief on the cross saved because he asked the
Lord Jesus to remember him? NO! One of the two thieves was saved and the other
was not. One received faith and the other received not. God indicated
hereby that He saves whom He will. We cannot be "born from above"
by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but only by the will of God.
Perhaps you remember what God says in Eph 2:8,

Eph 2:8 For by grace are
ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God:

And herein do we see the Lord Jesus as the
Good Shepherd who came "to seek and to save that which was lost".
He came to seek and to save His own sheep, of whom the thief on the cross was
one. From the words that the Savior spoke, may we conclude that He
desired this thief to have:

The Lord Jesus said: "Today shalt thou be
with Me". Could this really be true that God desires tohave
fellowship with man? Don't misunderstand me. I do not mean that Jesus is our
buddy. Far fromit. He is God Almighty
and we always remain His creatures. But in fellowship we reach the climax ofgrace and the sum of all Christian privilege. Higher than fellowship
we cannot go. We read in:

1Co 1:9 God is faithful,
by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

I have often told you that we are saved to
serve as His ambassadors, and this is true, but it is onlypart of the truth, and by no means the most wondrous and most
blessed part of it. Ultimately we are saved for Fellowship! God had
innumerable servants before Christ came to earth to suffer and die. All the
angels are His servants. Christ came not primarily to round up more servants,
but He came to gather those who should have fellowship with Himself. He
came to save His Bride from falling into Hell. Now, should the Bride of
Christ not have fellowship with her Bridegroom? Absolutely yes! That is why God
has commanded us to pray to Him, and to read His Word to us. That
which makes heaven so super attractive to us is not that heaven
is a place where there is no more suffering and sorrowing, or that heaven is a
place where we will meet again our loved ones, or that heaven is a place of
golden streets and pearly gates. NO! Heaven without Christ would not be
heaven. The heart of the true believer longs for Christ, to be with Him. In
Psalm 73, a Psalm of Asaph, we read these words:

Ps 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but
thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire
beside thee.

And the most amazing thing is that heaven will
not be completely heaven to Christ, in the highest sense, until all His
redeemed are gathered around Him. His heart longs for His saints. To come again
and receive us unto Himself, that is the joyous expectation that is set before
Him. Not until He sees of the travail of His soul will He be completely
satisfied. Listen to the words that Christ said to the thief on the cross. He
could have said, "Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be in
Paradise". That would have already been a wonderful promise in itself.
That would have set at rest the fears of the thief regarding the judgment to
come. But this was not sufficient to our blessed Savior. He wanted this man to
be with Him in Paradise. Jesus said, "Today shalt thou be with
Me in Paradise". That is why I said that our fellowship with our
Redeemer is the climax of grace and the sum of all Christian blessing.
Now we can better understand the words Jesus spoke to His disciples when He
said in:

Joh 14:2-3 In my Father's house are
many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again, andreceive you unto myself; that where I am, there
ye may be also.

Jesus did not mean that there are 4 story
mansions and 6 story mansions in heaven. The Jerusalem that is above is far
greater than such imagined earthly dwellings. With our earthly minds we cannot
understand the scope of our heavenly dwellings. But what we can understand and
what He did mean was this: "I go to prepare a place for you".
Where did He go that same evening? He went to the Garden of Gethsemane.
and from there He went to the cross. That is where He prepared a place
for us, on the cross. There is where He made sure our salvation, and there is
where He made sure that none of the reprobate could turn us back into the hands
of Satan. Safe and secure we are in His hand, to be with Him forever. That is
why we read in IThess 4:17, "And so shall we ever be with the
Lord". This is the goal of ail our hopes, and that is the goal of our
blessed Savior also.